Former Legspinner Sairaj Bahutule Named India A Bowling Coach For South Africa Tour, Sitanshu Kotak Appointed As Head Coach

Former India leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule has been selected as the bowling coach for the India A team’s tour of South Africa scheduled for later this month.

Sairaj Bahutule featured in two Tests and eight ODIs for India, picking 5 international wickets. His record of 630 first-class wickets along with over 6000 runs makes him a stalwart at the domestic level.

Also, Saurashtra’s Sitanshu Kotak is appointed as the head coach for the tour, while former Assam cricketer Subhadeep Ghosh will be the fielding coach, according to a report in Times Of India.

It has also been reported that Sairaj Bahutule will take up the job of the spin bowling coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

Post his retirement, Bahutule coached Vidarbha, Kerala, Bengal and Gujarat. He coached Gujarat for the past two seasons in domestic cricket. He has also worked in the Indian Premier League, as the spin bowling coach of the Rajasthan Royals.

In 2017, Sairaj Bahutule was roped in by Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, where he worked with young Australian spinners.

India A, captained by Priyank Panchal, will play South Africa A in three four-day matches from November 23 to December 9 in Bloemfontein.

Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Umran Malik are some of the players who impressed in the IPL and will be seen playing the longer format against South Africa A, who will be led by Pieter Malan.

India A squad: Priyank Panchal (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, B Aparajith, Hanuma Vihari, Upendra Yadav (wk), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagwaswalla

South Africa A squad: Pieter Malan (captain), Sarel Erwee, Dominic Hendricks, Raynard van Tonder, Sinethemba Qeshile, Senuran Muthusamy, Marco Jansen, Migael Pretorius, Beuran Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla, Glenton Stuurman, George Linde, Jason Smith, Tony de Zorzi.

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